Apres Protocol 10
by Warner Hedgehog
Summary: Set just after Arkham City, this is about a mob boss working out what to do next. I'm currently working out where to take it. As a side note, it was originally written with Two Face as the boss, but as I'd not included much coin action, he got swapped for 'Chico'. Some Penguin 'action' has now been added as has a little bit of Bruce Wayne.
1. Chapter 1

**Après Protocol 10**

Chico Maroni was the son of Sal "The Boss" Maroni. He'd been thrown into Arkham City by Hugo Strange just after it had been built. He and his gang had survived by keeping a very low profile while the bigger fish like Penguin and the Joker were fighting for supremacy. The Batman running about had made things even worse, but Chico had managed to keep his head down and stay out of their way. The mad Blitz that was Protocol 10 had pretty much destroyed Arkham City and killed a large percentage of its population. Somehow, Maroni and some of his gang had survived.

Now Chico stood in the centre of the ruined courthouse. His few remaining henchmen were outside standing guard. Most of his guys had been killed in the Tyger assault on the city and one or two had decided that they could make it as either super criminals or crime bosses in their own right – but they didn't matter as they'd probably be dead in a day or two. Joker's demise had created a power vacuum and various low level thugs seemed to have got the idea that they could fill his somewhat peculiar shoes. "Not a chance" said Chico to himself as he absentmindedly flipped a quarter while surveying the wreckage that surrounded him. In the corner, something glinted from beneath a large chunk of roof plaster so he pocketed the coin and ambled over and crouched down. Giving the plaster a gentle-ish shove revealed the glint to be caused by a submachine gun. "I suppose it'll come in handy" Maroni muttered. He pulled the gun free and proceeded to see if the plaster covered anything else. What his efforts revealed was a dead member of Jokers crew, who had several rounds of ammo on him and a couple of grenades. He also had a wallet in his pocket that judging by the ID card inside wasn't his. Too bad it only contained $20 but that was better than nothing.

Damn that Hugo Strange and this whole Arkham City thing. Rumour was that Strange had been at the top of the Wonder Tower when it had exploded, and the Bat along with Ra's Al Ghul had been seen falling from the exploding building. Hopefully they were both history, but he was none to confident about that.

Most of this part of Gotham was wrecked and would probably be demolished soon, no doubt under the stewardship of that rich bastard Bruce Wayne. For now though it was best to get what you could while there was anything left and ship the hell out and set up someplace less charred.

His thoughts were interrupted when his lieutenant, James Crawley came in. "Hey boss," he said, "Me and Big Dave have cleared a path down to the basement. It's pretty banged up but it's safe. You were right – Calendar Man never got out and his cell is pretty much un-openable."

"Oh well, he was weird anyway. Anything of use down there?" Chico asked

"Nah. Nothing but junk and a dead weirdo." Replied James.

"Screw this place then. Arkham city is dead. While the Bat's occupied with that annoying Quinn woman, let's get out of here." Chico had heard that Harley Quinn had kidnapped some cops and currently was occupying Batman's attention. He pulled out the quarter and looked at it in a very thoughtful way, nodded pretty much to himself and flipped the coin. It landed on tails. "Right, that settles it." He motioned to James and they headed to the back door, calling Big Dave out of the basement on the way. Guarding it was Lenny Brookhouse: loyal gang member and crack shot. Lenny also had a radio and was listening to Vicky Vale. Maroni opened the door and spoke to Lenny, "Any news on the Bat?"

"Not much. He's not been seen since he went in, and that was 2 hours ago. According to Vale, his little sidekick is talking to Commissioner Gordon right now." Lenny responded.

"Good. Gather the guys and meet us down at the Velvet Lounge. We're getting out of this hellhole."

"Will do boss." Lenny nodded and went off to get the rest of the gang.

An hour later, Chico was sitting in the main bar of the Velvet Lounge, an abandoned and somewhat wrecked nightclub. Lenny and the diminutive gang came in and gathered up some chairs so Maroni could have a group discussion. Chico quickly scanned the room and sat on the bar. "Right boys, we have to face facts here. This place has gone to hell and before too long the bulldozers are gonna come in. And with the Batman and his little lapdog Robin sticking their beaks in every time we do anything, I think the best thing to do if we ever want to get any bigger is to leave Gotham."

Big Dave waved his meaty fist in the air. "So, where we gonna go boss? I mean, Bludhaven's alright but Nightwing hangs out there, and he's just as bad as Batman."

"Valid and sensible point there Dave." replied Chico, "So we're going to Park City. James here has a few contacts there and they don't seem to have any costumed freaks being vigilantes."

There were general nods of agreement.  
The meeting was interrupted when the main door was kicked in by a large thug. The thug was followed by Al Bartross, a former member of Chico Maroni's gang. Al was one of the ex gang members who thought they could fill Jokers shoes and so far he'd done quite well. He'd risen to the top of the group of squabbling petty criminals by virtue of being slightly smarter and a shade more sadistic than the rest.

"Right Maroni!" he yelled, "You're finished. I'm taking over and you're going to leave. In a body-bag."

"Who says, you Albatross?" asked Chico in a sarcastic manner.

"Me and my gang. We says." responded Al. He was carrying a machine gun, and started to raise it in what he thought was a threatening way. This gave Chico more than enough time to whip his pistol out and shoot Al in the face, and without pausing or even slowing down he shot the big thug by the door as well.

"Says you, Albatross, "sneered Maroni, "Boys, get ready."

The lads either flipped up tables or leapt behind the bar, guns at the ready.

James looked at his boss and pointed to the back door with his pistol. Chico nodded and turned his attention back to the main door. A member of Al's little gang, all full of bravado and little sense of safety stepped into the doorway and was greeted by a hail of bullets. Snippets of a conversation between the remains of the Albatross gang could be heard. One of them shouted. "Yeah, you win. This time." They heard the outer door slam, followed by some badly-concealed giggling. Chico shook his head. "Pathetic." He whispered, "Lenny, got a grenade?" he quietly asked. Lenny nodded, and dutifully de-pinned one and threw it into the open doorway. There were a few cries of 'oh shitoshitoshit' and manic scrabbling at the door before it exploded.

**2 Days Later**

Big Dave and Lenny were in an abandoned apartment. The boss was setting up the move and there was nothing much to do. Lenny's radio was tuned to COSH FM, Gotham's own gangster radio station. It was billed as "Gansta Rap for real gangsters", but it mostly gave airtime to small-time hoods and thugs who wanted a bit of fame. Sometimes the big bosses used it to put out messages to their gangs, or some mad veiled taunt to the Batman.

Lenny was sat at a table, sorting through a pile of guns that were formerly owned by Al's gang. Some were junk but he was determined to make the most of what they'd found. So far he'd found 2 working pistols, and 3 working machine guns. Hopefully the deader weapons could be dismantled and used as spares. Big Dave was at another table with a pile of parts, trying to repair a shotgun.

"You know anyone in Park?" asked Big Dave.

"I think a few people I knew when I was a kid moved there, but I dunno if they've moved on." Lenny replied. "What about you?"

"My cousin lived there, and he was a cop." Dave spat the word 'cop' as if it left a bad taste.

"Was?"

"Yeah, he was killed during a raid on that psycho runt Penguin. Nasty business all round I heard: Penguin's whole operation in Park was ruined and the cops lost a few guys in the process. Any of them salvageable?" He nodded at the pile of guns.

Lenny nodded, "Yeah, some ain't bad. Got a few need work and a couple are pretty much past it."

COSH FM's news programme "What's Goin' Down in Gotham" came on, the headline story being that Jervis Tetch, aka the Mad Hatter had been collared by the police in downtown Gotham for kerb-crawling and harassing a seemingly random blonde teenager. Apparently he was to be taken to a new 'maximum security facility for weirdoes' somewhere near Metropolis. According to the reporter, another fruitcake bound for the new asylum was one Harley Quinn.

"Good thing too." Big Dave commented with feeling, "She was completely nuts."

"Yeah, damn right" agreed Lenny as he carefully squinted down the barrel of a pistol, "Couldn't stand that woman. That voice of hers went right through me like a saw." He shuddered at the thought of her.

Dave's phone rang. He looked at it and answered, "Hey boss. " He paused to listen, "Right, on our way." He shut it off and got up. "C'mon Lenny, The boss has called a meeting at the big church. Looks like something's up."

They put their gun projects down and picked up their working weapons before Lenny grabbed his radio; He switched it off and they headed to the meeting.


	2. Penguin Update

Oswald Cobblepot was pacing up and down in the manager's office of the Flamingo Paint Factory; his name at the moment according to various legal documents was Dibden Curlew.

The whole Dibden ruse had been created not too long before the whole Arkham City/Hugo Strange business and had for some reason not been found out, so was a very useful way to go into temporary hiding. He'd lost his prized secretary Sharon during that horrendous debacle, and was in the process of finding someone else with the same sort of mindset.

He was currently engaged in a conversation with one of his henchmen, Harry 'Bozo' Phillips. Harry's speciality was espionage: he was very handy for spying on the other criminals and mob bosses around the city and seeing what plans and capers they had on the go. He was also naturally cautious and careful and never rushed into anything. As a bonus he had a sister, Elena, who right now worked as the PA for a rather slimy film producer in Metropolis. If he could persuade Harry to talk her into changing employers then he'd be sorted.

Their attention at the moment however was on the surviving criminal landscape in Gotham.

"From what I can tell, Joker is gone for good. This time it's not a hoax or some twisted joke of his: he's actually kicked the bucket." Bozo stated.

"I think I'll wait and see. You never can tell what goes through the guy's head. What about Two-Face?" Penguin asked.

"He's disappeared. The official word from Gotham PD is there was no sign of a dead Harvey after Strange's bombardment of the city, so it's presumed he's decided to lay low for a bit. Black Mask has similarly vanished, but rumour has it he's left Gotham and had gone to Blüdhaven. I've heard no rumours about Dent at all." Harry responded.

"According to that bimbo Vicki Vale, That screeching harpy Harley Quinn had been grabbed by the police and the Bat and been dragged off to the new asylum near Metropolis. Same story with the Mad Hatter and The Riddler." Penguin stated.

"As for some of the others, apparently Poison Ivy was nowhere to be found, although some people seemed to think she's run off to a greenhouse in Calvin City. That weirdo Ra's Al-Ghul appears to be dead, although with him that don't really mean very much. Catwoman is still around, though her apartment was toast thanks to Harvey: The word is she's hunting down and seriously hurting any surviving members of his crew." Bozo said.

There were a few smaller fish to consider. One of the Falcone family was still apparently lurking about: Mario Falcone apparently owned a shipping business that did mostly legit trade here there and everywhere. Chico Maroni still had a small crew and according to rumours was looking to ditch Gotham.

"What about that knife-wielding maniac Victor Zsasz?" Penguin enquired.

"He made the news this morning as it happens," Bozo replied, "he's holed up in a fish processing plant on the docks and surrounded by armed cops. If he doesn't come out by midday, they're going in all guns blazing."

"I wouldn't be surprised if the Bat poked his nose into it. That's right up his all-action alley." Oswald speculated. "Anything on Freeze? Apparently the clown had his wife in a warehouse in the industrial district."

"Like Ivy and Dent, he's just plain vanished. They found a few of Joker's goons iced solid, but no sign of the walking popsicle." came the reply.

"No doubt we'll see him again. What about that hulking great Titan-addict, Bane? I heard a rumour that the Batman locked him up in some toy factory, and I can't imagine those Tyger people killing him: he's too big and annoying." Mused Cobblepot.

"Yeah, it seems he was in the Krank toy factory during the bombing, but legged it shortly after. According to a guy I know in the Gotham PD, its thought he's hoofed it to Florida."

"You know a guy in the PD?" Penguin eyed Bozo suspiciously.

Harry grinned "Yeah, he thinks I'm just an ordinary electrician, and who am I to tell him differently? Besides, he likes to have a non-cop buddy to talk to. Turns out he's a very...informative person to know."

Penguin smiled, "Ha! I like it. An uniformed informant: every criminal should have one!"

**Meanwhile:**

Bruce Wayne was in the mayor's office discussing the plans for what was left of Arkham City with a few key members of the Gotham City Council. "Well thanks to Strange, quite a bit of it is ruined beyond repair; those massive surrounding walls took quite a bit of punishment during his bombardment of the place, and I don't think they're safe." Bruce paused, "Besides, they don't give Gotham that friendly look. The Wonder Tower was severely damaged by the explosion at the top and has also got to go. "

The members of the meeting were gathered around a large table which contained a model of Arkham City and its immediate surroundings.

Bernard Quail, interim mayor pointed at the model of the Gotham Olympus, "What about the semi submerged Amusement Mile? A lot of the access to that area was ruined by the Penguin when he blew the bridges."

"A GCPD team has already been there and removed a number of the dead gang members, though they still have several buildings to check out." Wayne indicated Poison Ivy's ex-lair, "and some, as you can guess are more difficult than others. As for the bridges, Wayne enterprises has commissioned a survey team to inspect the remaining structures to see if anything can be reused.


End file.
